not your typical weight-loss blog

I love Valentine’s Day. This might seem odd, chronically single as I am, but I do. I love it. I love love. I love celebrating love and I think that it’s ridiculous that Valentine’s Day belongs to couples. There are many kinds of love. I celebrate them all and in that vein I give you…

You know those paintings where you see it one way, and then suddenly it’s different and you can’t see it the first way again? First you see the duck and then you can’t unsee the rabbit? Well, recently I had an I-can’t-unsee-this moment. I see it everywhere and it’s haunting me: TV shows make jokes…

My best friend Mikael hates the phrase “deserve her/him.” For example I will say, “He simply doesn’t deserve her.” Mikael will look at me, with the same look he has given me for eleven years (3% pity, 80% grace, and 17% silent lecture) and remind me that people are not awards to be earned. He…

For the photo shoot “There & Back Again” click here. Blog post: I got my heart broken and my confidence shattered. I gained pounds. I stopped writing. I went to Italy… regained some of my confidence with handsome Italian men and Renaissance Art (and gaining a few pounds because… Hello, Carbonara!) I started a new teaching…

I watch too much television. This started in 2011 when I got pink-eye and strep throat in the same two weeks and couldn’t get out of bed. I watched all of the then five seasons of The Big Bang Theory and nine seasons of what is now the original Will and Grace. This habit worsened however (yes…

In January, I went back to school to get a teaching credential in English. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was hard. I took on too much, I got my heart a little broken, and I gained a lot of weight. In the TV show Girls there’s a sobbing exchange that goes… Hannah: We…

This week has been a low one. As I mentioned yesterday, I have chosen to eat my feelings (and a little bit more). So, I’m taking action. I am switching directions. I’m switching plans. Weight Watchers has several different versions of its plans. I am presently on “Smart Points,” which puts me on a daily…

I have a few confessions to make, confessions of which I am not proud. Sometimes with this blog I feel like a fraud. Although I have been as vulnerable as possible, there have been things that I have hidden, or times I’ve only posted the positives, but it’s time to come clean. I still binge….

“People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.” – Alice Walker It has been quite a year. There have been many times that I have felt foolish writing this blog. I have felt too vulnerable. I have felt too vain. But I have…

Pounding. The cold concrete. Heart thumping.Feet moving fast. No air left to scream. The sweat hides tears. Pound it. Lift it. One foot in front of the other. Legs turn red with cold. Heart racing — reminding you it still works. I love running. I used to run away from home — in college. I…

There are a lot of lies we tell ourselves. Some of them are less damaging than others like, “they won’t kill off Tyrion, he’s the best character.” But others can be catastrophic. This week’s Weight Watcher’s meeting was about body confidence. It was about learning to love ourselves. A month ago, I would have marched into that room…

They say when you take a psychology class, you feel as if you yourself have every disorder you are studying. I am in an Educational Psychology class for my credential program and presently I think I have dyslexia, A.D.D., and I am gifted. One of those may actually be true, but something that I discovered…